French-owned carmaker Opel became the latest household name of the German auto industry to find itself in the spotlight over diesel emissions as authorities raided two factories and filed rigging charges against the company. Federal transport authority KBA accused Opel of "selling cars with manipulated exhaust control software", senior prosecutor Nadja Niesen told AFP.
She added that across Europe, around 95,000 cars were under suspicion. For its part, Opel acknowledged in a statement there were "preliminary proceedings on emissions" with searches at its factories in Ruesselsheim and Kaiserslautern.
It added that it was "fully cooperating with the authorities" and "reaffirms that its vehicles comply with the applicable regulations". Tracing its roots back more than 150 years, Opel was bought last year along with British subsidiary Vauxhall by Peugeot maker PSA after decades under US-based General Motors.
It was until recently one of the few corners of the mighty German auto industry relatively untouched by "dieselgate". The scandal followed Volkswagen's 2015 admission to fitting 11 million cars worldwide with software -- so-called "defeat devices" -- to make cars appear less polluting in lab tests than in real on-road driving.
The transport ministry in Berlin announced in July that it would question Opel relating to three models meeting the latest "Euro 6" emissions standards. In a statement Monday, ministry officials said they would soon issue an official recall for the models -- the Cascada, Insignia and Zafira -- which it discovered were fitted with a defeat device.
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